“They allowed him to be creative” | Relief

London.- Creativity is understood as the ability to create original, new and valuable designs. It is a somewhat abstract concept and therefore somewhat fickle. It is difficult to define, but as with other terms such as charisma, those who know it know it.

Creativity in principle has a prestigious quality. It is applauded, it should be encouraged, it is considered something positive and attractive. There are aspects of society, such as culture or art, where it is even the epicenter of everything.. Creativity or death, although in fact this is also a more modern concept than it seems, and it was only in Romanticism that originality and genius really began to be perceived as something worthy of respect.

However, in sports, everything is not so clear-cut. There are disciplines in which, yes, it is praised and is part of the activity, but In many other countries, creativity is viewed with suspicion.Because, in addition, sport implies norms, rules and obligations, and this in itself is difficult to coexist with what we are talking about.

Off to London, to tennis, to Carlos Alcaraz. In corridor conversations, one of the most frequently repeated concepts is “party plan”. Coaches tell their students what their opponent is like and what they need to do to beat him. Before that, much earlier, when it comes to the development of the tennis player himself, one of the most recurring questions is the style of play.

If a tennis player has a good forehand, a very high percentage of coaches will ask him to do everything possible to make that shot the most effective in the match. In many cases, great servers end up being amazing specialists.because there are too many advantages to be gained from it not to make it the center of your activities.

Juan Carlos Ferrero and Carlos Alcaraz, a coach and a tennis player, took a completely different path, in part because When they started working together, they found a rough diamond that had no obvious flaws to hide.If you have all the possible cards in your backpack, why choose some over others?

This anomaly of a boy who is asked not to narrow his vision but to do everything possible to widen it, is explained by Miko Margets, who for many years was the coach of the Fed Cup team and is associated with the Spanish Tennis Federation. . First, the initial premise: “After all, We are talking about an innate talent that was born with this gift.“Obviously there’s been a lot of work done and I think the right has always had that. He’s improved his serve and improved his backhand but he’s always been a very complete player,” he says.

Shape Carrara marble and do it without limiting yourself.”If there’s one thing that stands out, it’s that they allowed him to be creative.“They helped him get organized, they helped him be patient, but they didn’t limit his creativity,” Margets explains.

“For me, it’s very important for a player like Carlos. You have to see him enjoying himself so he can bring out all the tennis he has inside.“To limit him would mean losing some of his potential,” explains Margets, who in addition to his coaching career has a long career as a tennis coach.

The origin of everything

One of the comments most often repeated by pundits when talking about Alcaraz revolves around his joy. It is, they say, a sign of identity, He is a boy who smiles when he loses his glasses because he is having a good time.this smiling tennis player has something to do with it all. They asked Alcaraz not to worry, not to strain, to express his thoughts naturally, because then everything would fall into place.

There’s another consequence of all this: when you’re allowed to go off the rails, your play is more likely to become offensive. This also happens in football, it is much easier to work on defenseReactivity gives this opportunity, and the importance of tactics and the coach increases. Tactics, a preconceived idea, is in many ways the opposite of all this.

Everything seems rosy, but reality sometimes turns out to be harsher. To believe in genius means to believe in talent. I hope the inspiration doesn’t fade away and be able to find the right solutions with a keystroke and at any time. This is where the gaps arise.

Minor gaps, according to the expert: “It’s true, they said that he was in a hurry, but these are the sins of youth, which experience itself reinforces in you. I think he looked much more mature at Roland Garros than maybe he did last year.“I believe that those defects that are not defects to me are eventually smoothed out by time and competition.”

In all this, all that has been said is the Alcaraz of today, a rough diamond, accompanied by Ferrero to make it as pure as possible, but perhaps part of the tennis player’s creativity dates back to before he arrived in Villena, when he was still a child who was only interested in tennis.

“It comes naturally to me. When I was little, I didn’t have a great shot on the street, I didn’t have a great shot, but I had a lot of variety, so I stood out.. At 10, 11 or 12 years old, he stood out a little bit with his game, at that age he could serve and score, hit shots if they came to the net, make throws…

It was all there, and that’s why it can’t possibly be repeated. It was a difficult but rewarding task: to let him be himself.